Important Quotations Explained
1. There
is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now. I
remember watching myself brush my hair and how my eyes looked back
at me. The girl I saw was myself yet not quite myself. Long ago
when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her. But the
glass was between us—hard, cold and misted over with my breath.
Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place
and who am I?
2. I hated
the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rain. I hated the
sunsets of whatever colour, I hated its beauty and its magic and
the secret I would never know. I hated its indifference and the
cruelty which was part of its loveliness. Above all I hated her.
For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me
thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had
lost before I found it.
3. Our parrot
was called Coco, a green parrot. He didn't talk very well, he could
say Qui est la? Qui est la? And answer himself Che Coco, Che Coco.
After Mr. Mason clipped his wings he grew very bad tempered. . . .
I opened my eyes, everybody was looking
up and pointing at Coco on the glacis railings with his feathers
alight. He made an effort to fly down but his clipped wings failed
him and he fell screeching. He was all on fire.
4. 'He has
no right to that name,' she said quickly. 'His real name, if he
has one, is Daniel Boyd. He hates all white people, but he hates
me the most. He tells lies about us and he is sure that you will
believe him and not listen to the other side.'
'Is there another side?' I said.
'There is always the other side, always.'
5. How can
one discover the truth, I thought, and that thought led me nowhere.
No one would tell me the truth. Not my father nor Richard Mason,
certainly not the girl I had married. I stood still, so sure I was
being watched that I looked over my shoulder. Nothing but the trees
and the green light under the trees. A track was just visible and
I went on, glancing from side to side and sometimes quickly behind
me. This was why I stubbed my foot on a stone and nearly fell. The
stone I had tripped on was not a boulder but part of a paved road.
There had been a paved road through this forest. The track led to
a large clear space. Here were the ruins of a stone house and round
the ruins rose trees that had grown to an incredible height. At
the back of the ruins a wild orange tree covered with fruit, the
leaves a dark green. A beautiful place.
